The Guardian-Chinese social media companies remove posts showing off wealth and worshipping money
May 17, 2024 3 min 488 words
西方媒体的报道常常带着有色眼镜看待中国事务，下面是我对这篇报道的简要总结和客观评论： 《卫报》报道，中国社交媒体平台开展了内容治理行动，重点针对炫富和拜金类信息。此次行动是“净化网络文化环境”和创建“文明健康和谐的社会生态环境”的一部分。微博等平台发布了治理声明，并采取了相应措施。报道还提及中国社会贫富差距问题，以及中国政府近年来在网络和现实社会中开展的各类治理行动。 评论： 该报道在一定程度上反映了中国社交媒体平台规范用户行为的举措，但同时也存在一些偏见和误解。报道中提及的“炫富”和“拜金”类内容确实存在，但这些内容往往会引发社会负面影响，比如造成攀比心态扭曲价值观等。平台对此类内容进行治理，维护健康的网络环境，是负责任的做法，也是国际通行的做法。然而，报道用“crackdown（镇压）”一词带有负面色彩，且只强调“治理”，而忽视了中国政府在“共同富裕”方面的努力，以及中国社会环境的整体改善。此外，报道中提及的“净化网络文化环境”和“文明健康和谐的社会生态环境”建设，是各国在互联网发展中都会遇到的问题，中国政府采取的措施与国际社会的目标是一致的。总之，西方媒体应客观全面地看待中国事务，而不是用有色眼镜进行评判。
Chinese social media companies have launched a new crackdown on user content, targeting posts that show off personal wealth and financial extravagance.
In a statement posted online on Wednesday, Weibo said it had spent this month carrying out special management work on “undesirable value-orientated content”, including content “showing off wealth and worshipping money”.
The statement said it had targeted posts showing off luxury cars and expensive properties. Posts seen as bragging about wealth and the freedom that comes with being rich were also removed.
Other social media companies, including Tencent, Douyin and Xiaohongshu, posted similar statements.
The crackdown is a part of China’s campaign to create a “social-ecological environment that is civilised, healthy and harmonious”, Weibo’s statement said. It encouraged users to instead create or share high-quality, truthful and positive value-oriented content on the platform, to further create “a good community atmosphere of upward mobility and goodness”.
Douyin said it had removed 4,701 messages and 11 accounts from 1 to 7 May. Xiaohongshu said it had cleaned up 4,273 “illegal” posts in the past two weeks and closed 383 accounts, and Weibo said it had removed more than 1,100 pieces of content, according to Chinese media outlet, The Cover.
The stricter approach appears to be part of the Chinese authorities’ nationwide campaign to “purify the internet cultural environment”, which began in 2016.
Despite the Chinese Communist party’s efforts to achieve a “common prosperity”, the gap between the rich and the poor is increasing.
Data released from China’s National Bureau of Statistics showed the 2023 income gap in Beijing has reached its greatest value since data collection began in 1985. The share of China’s national income earned by the top 10% of the population has increased from 27% in 1978 to 41% in 2015, nearing the US’s 45% and surpassing France’s 32%, according to the Stanford Center on China’s Economy and Institutions.
Policies and crackdowns on social behaviour that the ruling Chinese Communist party has deemed unacceptable have also been seen offline.
In September 2023 Beijing amended laws to prohibit the comments, clothing and symbols that “hurt national sentiments”. In 2022, sports administrators said they would ban new tattoos for national football team members, and advised those with them already to have them removed or cover them up.
In August 2020 the Chinese government launched “Operation empty plate”, a campaign to stop food and beverage waste and cultivate frugality. And in 2018 the government called for “comprehensive reform” of the wedding industry to end to “vulgar wedding practices” like expensive wedding gifts, lavish ceremonies and demands for increasingly high bride prices.
In 2022 the Chinese National Radio and Television Administration attracted controversy when it said it was determined to crack down on the plastic surgery and “sissy” aesthetic on TV.